Autolycus. Shakespeare's rogue has a distinguished pedigree; his ancestor dwelt on Parnassus, where he was visited by his grandson Ulys ses. A slight character sketch is given of him in Book XIX. of the Odyssey, 392-8:— "Autolycus, who th' art Of theft and swearing (not out of the heart But by equivocation) first adorn'd By Jove's descend'nt ingenious Autolycus. From a XVIth century woodcut. translation (cp. Metamorphoses, Bk. XI.).† 6 The Seaboard of Bohemia. Drummond of Hawthornden, in his famous Conversations,' recorded that Ben Jonson said, " Shakespeare wanted art and sometimes sense, for in one of his plays he brought in a number of men saying they had suffered shipwreck in Bohemia, Admetus. O form and feature of my dearest wife, Against all hope thou once again art mine. (W. F. NEVINS.) Observe, too, that Alcestis dare not speak to Admetus for three days; Hermione similarly lives, though yet she speaks not'; when she does find voice, it is to call a blessing on Perdita; no word is addressed to Leontes. There are other remarkable parallels in the two plays. " * Chapman's paraphrase (pub. 1616); cp. My father named me Autolycus, who being as I am, littered under Mercury, was likewise a snapper up of unconsidered trifles." It is possible that Shakespeare's Autolycus owed something to Thomas Newbery's 'Book of Dives Pragmaticus,' 1563 (reprinted in Huth's 'Fugitive Tracts, 1875). where is no sea nearly 100 miles." This censure has been frequently repeated. As a matter of fact, Shakespeare follows Greene in this geographical detail. He may or may not have known better; incongruities and anachronisms are not out of place in 'A Winter's Tale'; he certainly bettered Greene's example, “making Whitsun pastorals, Christian burial, Giulio Romano, the Emperor of Russia, and Puritans singing psalms to hornpipes, all contemporary with the oracle of Delphi,"-the island of Delphi! Like the Chorus Time in the play, Romance might well claim : 'It is in my power To o'erthrow law and in one self-born hour (Act IV. i. 7-9.) The Duration of Action. The Winter's Tale, with its interval of sixteen years between two acts,* may be said, too, to mark the final overthrow of Time-the hallowed 'Unity of Time '-by its natural adversary, the Romantic Drama. The play recalls Sir Philip Sidney's criticism, in his Apologie for Poetrie, anent the crude romantic plays popular about 1580, when he outlined a plot somewhat analogous to that of The Winter's Tale as a typical instance of the abuse of dramatic decorum by lawless playwrights, who, contrary to academic rule, neglected both time and place.' The Winter's Tale, perhaps the very last of Shakespeare's comedies, appropriately emphasises, as it were, the essential elements of the triumph of the New over the Old. Sidney could not foresee, in 1580, the glorious future in store for the despised Cinderella of the playhouses, " NOW GROWN IN GRACE EQUAL WITH WONDERING." * Eight days only are represented on the stage, with an interval of twenty-three days after Day 2 (Act II. Sc. i.); and another short interval after Day 4 (Act III. Sc. ii.); the main interval of sixteen years comes between Acts III. and IV.; again, there is a short interval between Act IV. Sc. iv. and Act. V., i.e. the seventh and eighth days. Critical Comments. I. Argument. I. Polixenes, king of Bohemia, who is visiting his boyhood friend, Leontes, king of Sicilia, becomes desirous of returning to his own kingdom, and cannot be persuaded by his host to prolong his sojourn. Leontes then asks his queen, Hermione, to join her persuasions to his own. Her hospitable entreaties are so successful that Polixenes defers his departure. This slight incident is sufficient to arouse in Leontes a tempest of jealousy touching his queen's and his friend's mutual honour. He endeavours to prevail on a courtier named Camillo to poison Polixenes; whereupon Camillo informs the guiltless and unsuspecting monarch of his danger, and flees with him to Bohemia. II. The flight confirms Leontes in his wild suspicions. He visits his wrath upon the innocent Hermione, causing her to be isolated in a dungeon, where she is shortly afterward delivered of a daughter. Paulina, a lady of the court, presents the babe to the king, but he disavows it and orders it to be exposed in some remote desert place. III. The babe, who is named Perdita because she "is counted lost forever," is borne to a coast of Bohemia, by a courtier who is afterwards destroyed by a bear; while the child is found by a poor shepherd, who rears it as his own. Meanwhile Hermione, who has been brought to public trial, is completely vindicated by a Delphic oracle declaring: "Hermione is chaste; Polixenes blameless; Camillo a true subject; Leontes a jealous tyrant; his innocent babe truly begotten; and the king shall live without an heir, if that which is lost be not found." Leontes discredits the oracle and is punished by the tidings of the sudden death of Hermione and her only The monarch is brought by this stroke to realize the enormity of his offence. He repents and resolves. to do daily penance. son. IV. Sixteen years pass by. In the court of Bohemia Polixenes and his friend Camillo discuss the reported actions of the king's son Florizel, who of late has been paying assiduous attention to a shepherd's lass. In order to investigate the report they disguise themselves and visit the shepherd's cottage, where they find Florizel on the point of betrothing Perdita. The king wrathfully puts a stop to the betrothal, when the lovers resolve to flee the country. Camillo privately offers to conduct them to Sicilia, assuring them of a warm welcome on the part of Leontes. The offer is gladly accepted. V. Florizel and Perdita are cordially received in Sicilia, but are closely pursued thither by Polixenes. At this juncture the clothing and jewels found with the infant sixteen years before are produced by the shepherd, thus establishing the identity of Perdita as daughter of Leontes. The joy of the two sovereigns at meeting again after their long separation is redoubled by the prospect of uniting their children in marriage. One thing only is lacking to the perfect happiness of Leontes -the presence of his lost wife, whom he has never ceased to mourn. Thereupon Paulina invites the company to inspect a statue of Hermione. They pause spellbound at the triumph of art, for the supposed statue is so perfect as to seem animate. At last it actually stirs, and the enraptured Leontes finds that he is embracing not marble but his living wife Hermione, who, dwelling in retirement, has awaited the fulfilment of the oracle. MCSPADDEN: Shakespearian Synopses. II. Hermione. The character of Hermione exhibits what is never found in the other sex, but rarely in our own, yet sometimes dignity without pride, love without passion, and tenderness without weakness. To conceive a character in which there enters so much of the negative, required perhaps no rare and astonishing effort of genius, such as created a Juliet, a Miranda, or a Lady Macbeth; but to delineate such a character in the poetical form, to develop it through the medium of action and dialogue, without the aid of description; to preserve its tranquil, mild, and serious beauty, its unimpassioned dignity, and at the same time keep the strongest hold upon our sympathy and our imagination; and out of this exterior calm produce the most profound pathos, the most vivid impression of life and internal power-it is this which renders the character of Hermione one of Shakspeare's masterpieces. Hermione is a queen, a matron, and a mother; she is good and beautiful, and royally descended. A majestic sweetness, a grand and gracious simplicity, an easy, unforced, yet dignified self-possession, are in all her deportment, and in every word she utters. She is one of those characters of whom it has been said proverbially that "still waters run deep." Her passions are not vehement, but in her settled mind the sources of pain or pleasure, love or resentment, are like the springs that feed the mountain lakes, impenetrable, unfathomable, and inexhaustible. She receives the first intimation of her husband's |